NASCAR centerpiece: This is my house!

Monday

Apr 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMApr 26, 2010 at 5:26 PM

Home-field advantage is as important in racing as in any other sport

Rob Sneddon

In stick-and-ball sports, home-field advantage is a vital component in determining the favorite. It’s often overlooked in racing – but it shouldn’t be. Four of Denny Hamlin’s 10 career Sprint Cup wins have come in his home state of Virginia (three at Martinsville, one at Richmond). Hamlin, whose No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing entry carries FedEx sponsorship, says that’s not a coincidence.

“There’s more FedEx jackets and hats and shirts in the stands (at Virginia tracks),” he says. “Believe it or not, we can see that. We see it under caution. Somehow that just gives you more motivation, for whatever reason, or determination.”

Here are some other examples of Cup drivers finding a little extra motivation, or determination, when performing before the home folks.

The Alabama gang

The Allison clan, based in Hueytown, always turned it up a notch at Talladega. Bobby Allison had four wins at the Alabama superspeedway, and his son Davey had three. Bobby’s brother Donnie had just 10 career wins, but two came at Talladega. Bessemer’s Neil Bonnett also won at his home-state track.

Darlington’s darlings

Spartanburg, South Carolina’s David Pearson was tough to beat anywhere – but particularly in his home state. Ten of Pearson’s 105 Sprint Cup wins came at Darlington, more than at any other track, including three in the Southern 500. And if it wasn’t Pearson in Victory Lane, it was often Timmonsville, South Carolina’s Cale Yarborough, who won the Southern 500 five times. In one 10-year stretch, Pearson and Yarborough combined to win 11 of 20 Darlington races.

DW’s home cookin’

The first of Darrell Waltrip’s 84 career Cup wins came at his old Saturday night haunt, Nashville Speedway, in 1975. By the time the Tennessee native retired, he had won another 19 times in his home state, with seven more coming at Nashville and a record 12 at Bristol.

Hurrying Hoosiers

“I have a bad memory, but I still know who Ray Harroun is.” That’s how Jeff Gordon summarized his motivation after winning the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 and joining Harroun, winner of the first Indy 500, in the history books. Gordon, a California native who grew up 15 miles from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now stands as the 400’s only four-time winner. Tony Stewart, a native of Columbus, Indiana, who began his career racing open-wheel cars and dreamed of winning the Indy 500, is a two-time Brickyard 400 winner.

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville

Georgia native Bill Elliott got five of his 44 career Cup wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

High roller

After winning the 2009 Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Vegas native Kyle Busch said it was “probably what it would feel like to win the Daytona 500.”

The ultimate hometown hero

For Fireball Roberts, winning at his home track and winning the Daytona 500 were one and the same. Roberts, a Florida native who had attended Daytona Beach’s Seabreeze High School, accomplished the feat by winning the 1962 Daytona 500.

ONE TO WATCH: Kevin Harvick

WHY HE MATTERS: Talladega victory ended a 115-race winless streak.

WHAT HE SAYS: “It was just all about timing.”

WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY: Some timing. The margin of victory was 0.011 seconds; the margin in Harvick’s last win, the 2007 Daytona 500, was 0.020.

NEXT RACE Crown Royal 400, Richmond International Raceway

THE LOWDOWN Tough act to follow. Richmond has the misfortune to fall just six days after one of the wildest weekend’s in NASCAR history. First, a tornado watch shut Talladega down on Saturday and bumped the Nationwide race to Sunday, after the Sprint Cup race. That Sprint Cup race, the Aaron’s 499, produced records for the number of leaders (29), lead changes (88) and green-white-checkered restarts (three, the maximum). The race ran 12 extra laps, and Kevin Harvick needed every foot of those 12 laps to overtake Jamie McMurray at the end. Top that, Richmond!

“They said, ‘Have at it, boys,’ and we did.” – Juan Pablo Montoya, after finishing third in perhaps the wildest Talladega race ever

Where to watch

Saturday’s pre-race show on Fox starts at 7 p.m. EDT, followed by the race at 7:30.

UP TO SPEED

Leaders of the pack

If past performance is any indication, a select group will spend most of the night hogging the lead on Saturday. Twelve drivers have led at least 17 laps per start at Richmond International Raceway, led by Denny Hamlin. The Virginia native has led more than one of every four laps he’s run at the track (see chart). Beyond the top 12 the numbers drop dramatically. Several top drivers have had trouble finding their way to the front at Richmond, none more so than Jamie McMurray. In 14 career races at RIR, McMurray has logged 5,110 laps without ever leading.

Sound familiar?

Last lap at Talladega. Brad Keselowski pulls off a startling pass for the win, while all heck breaks loose behind him. One car gets so high in the air that it tears down a portion of the catch fence. That’s how the Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup race ended last year – and it’s also how the Aaron’s 312 Nationwide race ended last Sunday. The one difference was that it was Dennis Setzer who got into the catch fence this time, not Carl Edwards. Setzer was uninjured. “Just amazing,” said Keselowski as the sun set on a long, eventful Sunday.

Milestone

The Aaron’s 499 was the 300th career Sprint Cup start for Jimmie Johnson. He’s won 50 of them – exactly one of every six Cup races that he’s run. That is, by far, the best winning percentage of any active driver, and it is comparable to the career numbers put up by Richard Petty. The King had 200 career wins in 1,184 starts.

WEEKLY STATS

Laps led per start at Richmond

RANK DRIVER LAPS LED STARTS AVG.

1 Denny Hamlin 899 8 112.4

2 Kevin Harvick 726 18 40.3

3 Kyle Busch 398 10 39.8

4 Tony Stewart 815 22 37.0

5 Jeff Gordon 1258 34 37.0

6 Jeff Burton 899 31 29.0

7 Ryan Newman 433 16 27.1

8 Jimmie Johnson 369 16 23.1

9 Kasey Kahne 249 12 20.8

10 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 427 21 20.3

11 Kurt Busch 348 18 19.3

12 David Reutimann 104 6 17.3

13 Matt Kenseth 192 20 9.6

14 Mark Martin 420 48 8.8

15 Joe Nemechek 179 32 5.6

16 Brian Vickers 53 11 4.8

17 Bobby Labonte 161 34 4.7

18 Greg Biffle 71 15 4.7

19 Martin Truex Jr. 28 8 3.5

20 Clint Bowyer 24 8 3.0

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